


Tactics

by dance4thedead



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming, COVID-19 Inspired, M/M, No Snap, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Podfic, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Read by the Author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:01:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23756551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dance4thedead/pseuds/dance4thedead
Summary: “They’re gonna nuke us off the planet, aren’t they?” Bucky asks into the phone. They’re over three weeks into the siege. Over three weeks since they reunited and fought side by side, only for them to get separated in the heat of battle.Takes place in an Alternate Universe in which Thanos goes for the mind stone before the time stone, but gets trapped with his army during the attack on Wakanda.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 8
Kudos: 29
Collections: Quarantine Writing Fun, Voiceteam 2020





	Tactics

  


_09:38 - 5.43MB - download[.mp3](https://www.dropbox.com/s/pj2p8bn2riqj3a8/Tactics.mp3?dl=1) \- featuring [duckgirlie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/duckgirlie/profile)_

  


* * *

"There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must be not attacked, towns which must not be besieged,  
positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed."  
_—Sun Tzu, The Art of War, 8.3_

* * *

They don’t have the numbers to drop the inner force field and make a stand against Thanos’s army. He heard by way of Rhodey that foreign aid is unwilling to mount a simultaneous attack to hit them from the inside and out, citing a high projected casualty rate.

“They’re gonna nuke us off the planet, aren’t they?” Bucky asks into the phone. They’re over three weeks into the siege. Over three weeks since they reunited and fought side by side, only for them to get separated in the heat of battle. 

“Wanda won’t let them,” Steve replies. ‘Them’ being the numerous governments and their respective leaders that had spent the past few days running their mouths at each other and the press instead of doing anything remotely helpful. “Don’t worry, she’s not dropping the outer force field for anything. And if they try to force her, let’s just say they’ve got a number of stubborn assholes they’ve gotta go through first.”

Bucky grants him a laugh. “My hero.” 

Bucky looks out the palace window at the dim sunset, beyond the glimmering blue and red lights in the sky, to where he imagines Steve being. The enemy occupied zone is a five mile ring spanning from the inner wall to the outer one, with temporary fortifications erected to mask the invader’s movements. Steve is past there, hunkered down with Natasha, Wanda, and Bruce in an evacuated subterranean train station they’re using as HQ.

“Everyone holding up okay in there? Sorry I haven’t checked in in a bit.” 

“Yeah. All things considered. Your friend Vision was over the moon to speak to his girl.”

“I heard he pulled through. That’s great. Yeah, that’s good. I hope I get the chance to thank the royal family for everything they’ve done.” There’s earnestness in his voice, not the Cap-kind, but the one that’s 100% Steve Rogers. There’s a hint of sorrow too, and that’s how Bucky knows that Steve’s sentiment isn’t just about the guy with the cape.

“How’s Sam?” 

“Your work-wife?” he fires back, without missing a beat.

Steve snorts.

“He’s fine. We’re playing nice, but the finer points to our relationship I won’t kiss and tell.” Bucky swears he can hear Steve’s eye-roll. “You should give him a call, though. He’s out patrolling the border on foot again, like its a dike ‘bout to spout a leak.”

“To his benefit, Buck, it’d make sense for Thanos to strike now at a time like this, with our guard half-down.”

“Oh, without a doubt. But staying ready and just getting yourself worked up aren’t the same. He’s not gonna be catching anything the lookouts from these skyscrapers are gonna miss.”

“He gets...trench-crazy. Especially when we had to lay low.”

Something about that clicks to Bucky. _He feels trapped and vulnerable, give him slack_ , Steve is saying, without putting his friend out there like that. Bucky switches topics, out of respect.

“Hopefully someone thinks up a plan soon. I’m eating a bullet before I eat my boots, Rogers.”

“Bucky, that line wasn’t funny when you tried it in ‘44.”

“Mmhmm...then why are you smiling--?”

“Oh, fuck you!” Steve’s tiny phone-voice hilariously jumps up the octave. 

“Seriously though, there is a plan, right? There’s not enough sunlight getting through with both shields up. Shuri’s working 'round the clock coming up with solutions to keep the lights on and us in touch with the outside world. But there’s an impending food problem and a water problem. If the only play is to gamble how agrarianly inclined these alien soldiers are, it’s gonna get ugly in here.”

“We’re working on it. For now, we can’t open up the force field without dropping it completely. In the meantime, we had some allies intercept Thanos’s reinforcements before they entered our atmosphere.”

“Asgardians?”

“No...” Steve says quietly. “No, the Asgardians are dead. Thor made it out, but everyone else, Thanos…”

“I’m sorry.” 

“He’s really angry,” he says wetly. “I’ve been keeping him company, but he’s so mad. He tried to get Wanda to drop the force field and let him in, but she wouldn’t. Bruce tried to get between them, but Thor threw him into a wall and he screamed at her, right in her face and then broke down sobbing at her feet. Begged for forgiveness from them both, from us all, in languages that ran together, and then he broke down and cried in our arms on the floor while we held him. I haven’t seen him like that, ever, Buck. He… he lost everyone. We couldn’t let him.”

Steve’s choking up and trying in vain to hide it. 

“Steve. You’re a good friend.”

Bucky hears him laugh through a sob.

“Tony’s back, too. Just got back.”

A memory of pain shoots through phantom muscles in his arm. Before he realizes he’s damaging it, his fingers dig into the metal railing. He hastily re-calibrates the strength value down to the minimum. 

“He’s trying to fabricate something that’ll breach Wanda’s wall without harming the rest of you trapped inside. He’s… he’s on our side, Bucky. We need him.”

“Does he know I’m here?” Bucky tries to say smoothly, but his voice betrays how tense he is. 

“Yeah. He’s known.”

“Steve, if he comes here--”

“Tony isn’t going to try to--”

“He put a missile eighteen inches from my face and fired it.”

The gauntlet is still fresh in his mind. So is the kick of adrenaline from a mental-subprocess that refuses to let him die in front of Steve. Not again. Never again.

“So you’re more scared of _him_ than an enemy that’s got you boxed in.” 

“NO. I'm scared of _you_ when you think you’ve got nothing left to lose. You find a fucking grenade to jump on every time I'm not around, Steve. You don't ever consider how it'd feel if it were the other way around, do you?.

The line goes silent, and Bucky regrets that neither of them had been pulling their punches.

“Steve. Steve... if it comes to it, I’ll ask him for mercy, but I can’t ask for forgiveness.” He hesitates before pleading softly, "Don't you be there, when that happens. If you've got any respect for me."

“I know, Buck. I promise he’s not going to go after you again.”

“You’d bet my life on that?”

“Yes.”

Bucky loses it, cracking up hysterically. “The _fuck_ , Steve?” 

“Where do I… okay. First off, the way he snapped and went after you wasn’t right. He tried to kill you. I know you were in a lot of pain during the flight."

"Tell me something I don't know."

Steve's nervous. He can tell.

"The next thing I’m gonna say doesn’t diminish that, so let me say it.”

Bucky shakes his head. “All right. Go ahead.”

Steve takes a deep breath. “I am Tony’s friend, even though I know there’s significant risk involved in that. He’s got a compass that, in the moment, doesn’t always point true north. But I can tell that the guilt and remorse wears on him each time he does things wrong… and that despite that, he tries to do what he thinks is right, even when it costs him status, friendships, freedom, happiness… that’s why I still stand by him. That’s why I know he’s not out for you, Bucky. But Thanos, I guarantee, Tony’s gonna whip something up to wipe the floor with him for what he did to Thor’s people.”

He's not sold on the argument, but Bucky can’t say Steve’s sincerity leaves him unmoved. Pandora's box has got to open sometime or another, Bucky figures. The least he could do is try to brace for it. “Well, tell him to get a move on it. I’m too old for this long-distance thing, and you’re not getting any younger, either.”

“I’ll pass it along. I’m sure that’ll go over well.”

Bucky rocks back on his heels, looking out at the near-night of the far, far away sky. “It better. Let’s get this war won and done, Cap.”

"Force him to reveal himself, so as to reveal his vulnerable spots."  
_—Sun Tzu, The Art of War, 6.23_

**Author's Note:**

> Podfic features a section of "Fire and Regeneration" by Wendy & Lisa feat. Shankar, from the orignal soundtrack of Heroes.


End file.
